Authorised Users

In one line

A producer of the goods applies to be entered in Part B as an authorised user, and it is the authorised user, not the registered proprietor, who has the exclusive right to use the indication.

Why the Act separates the two

The registration is held by an association. By section 2(1)(n) the registered proprietor is an association of persons or of producers or an organisation, and by section 11(1) only such a body may apply. The association does not grow the tea or weave the cloth.

The producers do. So the Act gives the association the registration and the producers the right to use it. Section 21(1)(b) puts it plainly: the exclusive right to the use of the geographical indication in relation to the goods belongs to the authorised user.

This is the single most misunderstood feature of the Act. A student who writes that the registered proprietor has the exclusive right to use the indication has got it backwards.

The provision itself

Section 17(1). "Any person claiming to be the producer of the goods in respect of which a geographical indication has been registered under section 16 may apply in writing to the Registrar in the prescribed manner for registering him as an authorised user of such geographical indication."

Section 17(2). The application shall be accompanied by "a statement and such documents of facts as may be prescribed and required by the Registrar to determine as to whether such person is the producer of the goods referred to in that sub-section", and the prescribed fee.

Section 17(3). The provisions of Chapter III relating to

• (a) the filing and examination of the application;
• (b) the refusal and acceptance of registration;
• (c) withdrawal of acceptance of application;
• (d) advertisement of application;
• (e) opposition to registration;
• (f) correction of error in and amendment of the application; and
• (g) registration,

apply to an authorised user's application and registration "in the same manner as they apply for the application for registration and registration of the geographical indication".

Broken down

Who may apply: any person claiming to be the producer. "Producer" is defined in section 2(1)(k): for agricultural goods, one who produces, processes or packages them; for natural goods, one who exploits them; for handicraft or industrial goods, one who makes or manufactures them; and in each case including a person who trades or deals in that production, exploitation, making or manufacturing.

So the definition is wide and it includes a trader, provided he trades in that production. A pure importer with no connection to the making does not qualify.

Note the word "claiming". As with section 11(1), the Registrar takes the claim and then tests it, which is what section 17(2) is for.